I personally love the holiday season, all the different varieties of them. What I really enjoy is “window shopping" to see what will inspire me to think of a loved one while browsing about. However, there is one year I remember when my husband was working out of town and Rylan was much smaller. I would think about going shopping and it would just feel overwhelming. Just to get out of the house and go out in public, let alone doing any actual shopping.

Especially during holidays, I’m wondering if you have noticed, just how much commercialism is out there. There is so much less relaxation and ease, and I feel so much more stress and pressure from the environment. My system thinks it’s just a little bit too much.

There are so many more items on display, and they just seem to tempt you to impulsively pick them up - and they beg to be purchased. Especially for kids, the visuals, smells, and sounds can be overwhelming the sensory circuits to navigate, so they get overloaded much more quickly. That is intensified when impulse control seems to be at the forefront to begin with.

I know I would find myself in shame spirals just feeling hopeless when my son would become inconsolable in stores. He would beg for a toy, shoes, or for candy, whatever would catch his attention in the moment. I remember asking myself, “how in the world do you navigate this territory when your child is too big to pick up and carry away from the scene?” He was just too big for me to pick up anymore.

I remember I planned a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up some photos I had printed. I wanted to do what I call a pre-hersal, now I’d call it a time-travel to the future. It is an effective way to bring in the imagination of the right hemisphere into relationship.

I asked Rylan, "Would you like to go window shopping with me today at Wal-Mart?" We had looked at a Wal-Mart catalog together and he’d circled many things that he had been dreaming about being able to get. So, I knew there were going to be quite a few things there that were on his wish list.

What I decided to do was to share a story. Stories are also an excellent way to engage the imagination with resonance so there can be a felt-shared experience.

I shared with him how as a child I loved on the very rare occasion when we’d get to go window shopping during the holidays. With intention I clarified, "Window shopping means looking at what stores have rather than buying. You just notice what you think others might enjoy, and then we’ll share with each other what we would enjoy. Does that sound fun?"

"Yeah!" Rylan responded with enthusiasm.

I double checked and asked, "Will we be buying anything that is not on our list?" to which he replied, "No way!"

When we bundled up what we needed for this type of excursion, remember my son had sensory processing difficulties, you can create a bag that you take with you. It would have all kinds of sensory toys in it.

You could have squeezy balls, you could have things you could suck on, or different sizes and shapes of objects. Just something that can help to get the fidgets out and start to calm and relax the nervous system. We called it our sensory bag of tricks, and we used them for transitions out and back and then we headed off for our great adventure.

We were successful picking up the photos and began browsing our way through the store to pick up the few items on our list. Wouldn’t you know it, he saw what then was then, the new Xbox 360 Halo game system. Oh, my goodness, he was like, "Oh Mom, this is so cool, this is all I want right now! Please Mom, would you get it for me right now, p-l-e-a-s-e?"

I was able to quickly take in his mounting excitement, and I empathized, I said, "Wow, this is the one you marked in the catalog that you really like, isn’t it? Let’s see what all it does and check it out."

We took the time to get the box down and look at it. He read out loud to me everything it said on the box and I would reflect back what I heard wa